At a recent seminar attended by grassroots, the People's Association deputy unveiled a new mission statement. It will focus more on " Building and Bridging communities.
It will take a hard look at whether the 1800 grassroot organisations ( RC'S ) and 5 CDC'S are effectively reaching out to the various segments of the communities; the young, the elderly, the new citizens, the more successful and the not so successful Singaporeans.
In Singapore there are 29,000 grassroot leaders. PA youth movements has 210,000 members. The deputy feels many joined because of personal interests, to participate in a sport or a hobby.
It was also reported that many young people have the wrong idea that grassroot events means a " lucky draw ". PA also encouraged grassroot leaders to make their presence felt in the community instead of just hovering in the background of RC events.
At the next convention 2010, " new thinking ", " new approaches ", " new skills " and new partnerships will be presented.
In Singapore locally born Singaporeans total approximately 3.5 million. PRS, new citizens, foreign talents and others, totalling another one million plus.
The surge of new immigrants, different cultures, different behaviours, different thinking, different likes and dislikes, different food and a whole lot of differences in everyday living.
The bridging , the building, the bonding is going to be an uphill task for our grassroots and CDC's.
Thus new ideas, new methods, new challenges, new approach, new thinking and plenty of hard work had to be put in place to bond Singaporeans with more than one million new immigrants and counting.
There should be a way to do it but HOW ?
